Thursday, April 7, 2011

Bryce's Room Revamp -- The Book Shelves

On Wednesday after the Zoo and Bryce's nap we headed out to one of our favorite stores... Home Depot.

Oh look at all the monkeys looking at the monkeys. We were lucky enough to be joined by a few friends. In totally there were 3 moms, 7 boys (age 5 and under), and 2 little girls. We had a GOOD time.

Oh hey a picture of me and the kids... those are few and far between... so enjoy.

Okay, Okay... On to the book shelves.

Did you notice I painted the ceiling???? It is pretty awesome. Every time I walk in the room now I have to smile.

For the book shelves I was going to build some out of wood, but I was feeling lazy and decided I could get the same effect with rain gutters. I basically followed THIS tutorial. But here are a few things I learned along the way.

First I love Home Depot. It is my home improvement store of choice. One of the things I love about it is that they will just about do anything for you if you ask.

I have discovered an almost failsafe way to get them to do whatever you ask. I take all my kids with me. Whenever I take all 4 kids somewhere I always get someone who tells me "Wow, you must be very busy." Using this to my advantage I load up the kids and go to the aisle about one aisle over from what I want. So if I want rain gutters on aisle 14, I got to aisle 13 and the put on the deer in the head lights look. (So basically I am going to play a little dumb.) Without fail, at that point some nice guy in an orange smock comes up to me and asks if he can help me. Then like I don't know I ask, "Ummm I need vinyl rain gutters. " Then he takes me over to them and since I have "no idea" what I am doing he very helpfully shows me where they are and all the little pieces I need for them. But then I ask "So is there anyway to cut them." Next thing you know my guy in an orange smock has now handed my rain gutters to some poor guy named Mike who is now cutting my rain gutters into 3 ft pieces by hand with a hack saw while I walk around the store getting more ideas.

I slyly took this picture of Mike in the background cutting my gutters. Hi Mike. I swear I am not always this diabolical. But seriously, if I can get some guy to hand cut my vinyl gutters for me, for free, I am totally going to take advantage of that.

Later when I got home all I had to do was slide on the clip things, snap on the ends, and hang those bad boys up. It took like less than 45 mins. And I got exactly the look I was going for.

Also in the tutorial she sanded the cut edges. I didn't because they get completely covered by the end caps and I am pretty sure Mike had kinda rubbed little vinyl bits off for me already (I am not sure though because while he was finishing up the kids and I where thinking about building a playground.) And then I got home I was a little worried I was going to have to spray paint them of something, because there were a lot of little marks from the vinyl rubbing together and marker marks from cut lines. But once the end cap were on you couldn't see the marker and a magic eraser took off the other marks.

I switched out the other rocker for the big brown one so that I can pile all my kids on my lap and read.

I love that you can talk those HD guys into anything. I feel like I live at that place and there's one older guy who insists on helping me with everything. I tell him I know where everything is and he still shows me where to go and then wants to help me pick out everything I need!

I hopped over from TT&J. A-MA-ZING!! So much eye candy! Love the striped ceiling and book shelves are brilliant-absolutely brilliant! My husband took our 3 kids age 5, 3, 2 at the time to a hearing to get our property taxes reduced. He took them with 1 bag of cheetos, and one bottle of grape soda to "share" amongst themselves. You should have seen how fast they reduced the taxes and had him out--they didn't even want to see his carefully prepared slideshow! Every now and then it's good for them to contribute!

Are you familiar with the work of Jim Trelease {author of the Read Aloud Handbook}? He advocates for all schools and homes to have the rain gutter bookshelves so students can have visually aesthetic environments to promote reading.

I love these! Google him. Reading his ideas is helpful for all parents and teachers...

I'd be oh so happy if you could share this with my readers tonight @Creative Juice Thursday. Get your crafting shoes on... Hope to see you there...

You're a genius! Ha Ha I LOVE how you handle Home Depot! I've noticed it always works to my advantage too, when I act like I'm lost and have no idea what I'm looking for. When asked I pull a crumpled piece of paper from my pocket, read it and say "Uh, L brackets?" Getting the added sympathy with the kids is a great move though, I'll have to try that! I love the changes you made in the room!! The stripes on the ceiling are so fun, and the corner looks so cozy with the big chair. And oh goodness, LOVE the rain gutter shelves!! My friend was telling me she'd seen someone do them, but I hadn't seen them until yours. They look awesome!!!

Me

Welcome to Corner House, where there is always a project in progress. Hi, my name is Laura. I am a happy wife and busy mother of 5. In my "spare time" I love to explore my creative side, everything from DIY home decor, to sewing, to baking, and just about everything in between.